International

Immigration Reform and the Engineering Shortage

Issue
H-1B Visa and Employee-Based (EB) immigrant visa programs are utilized to gain authorization for foreign citizens to work in the United States. H-1B Visa and EB immigrant visa programs are essential to ensuring the engineering industry can recruit highly skilled foreign engineering professionals to help address the critical shortage of engineers in the United States today.

To qualify for an H-1B Visa, the potential employee must qualify for the occupation by holding at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent in experience, training, and education. A statutory cap limits the number of H-1B petitions which may be approved in each fiscal year. The general cap is 65,000 H-1B Visas, although an additional 20,000 H-1B Visas are available to foreign workers who hold a master's degree, or higher, from an accredited U.S. university.

The primary problem relating to H-1B Visas is that demand for those visas far outweighs the supply. For example, the H-1B cap for FY 2009 will be reached in April 2008, which means U.S. employers will be unable to hire qualified professionals for nearly 18 months (October 1, 2009).

ACEC Position
ACEC favors an increase in the number of H-1B and EB immigrant visas granted by the government as a means of addressing the shortage of engineering professionals in the United States. ACEC supports H.R. 5630, sponsored by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) which would increase the cap in H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year, and would remove H-1B caps for foreign students receiving an advanced degree from a U.S. university in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields. ACEC also supports H.R. 5642, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) that would provide a temporary increase in the number of H-1B visas to 195,000 for 2008 and 2009.

ACEC also encourages Congress not to focus on immigration enforcement-only legislation that would be overly burdensome on U.S. small businesses by requiring them to utilize an "electronic employee verification system" that is inadequate to meet the demands that would be placed on it.